MANILA (UPDATED) - The family of an overseas Filipina worker (OFW) made a last-minute appeal to President Rodrigo Duterte before her scheduled execution on Wednesday afternoon.

"Sa ating mahal na pangulo, sana matulungan niya ang kapatid ko, maisalba ang buhay niya. Ibibitay na siya....," Lt. Col. Gary Pawa, brother of OFW Jakatia Pawa, said.

Mr. Pawa shared with ABS-CBN News on Wednesday morning how he learned of the sad news.

"Tumawag kapatid ko kanina around 5 o'clock in the morning. Kasi nga nabigla nga ako kanina sa pagtawag niya kasi umiiyak. Sabi niya 'Kuya, bukas bibitayin na kami'," he said.

Mr. Pawa said he cried when he heard his sister's last wish.

He said Jakatia told him, "Magpapaalam ako. Kuya, huwag mong pabayaan dalawang anak ko, bukas bibitayin na ako. Yun lang mahihingi ko sa iyo."

"Napaiyak na rin ako...talagang malungkot..Hindi naman tama ang desisyon," he said.

Jakatia has two children, a boy and a girl.

She told her brother that she would be among three people--all women--scheduled to be hanged Wednesday.

In 2011, Kuwait's Court of Cessation upheld the death verdict handed down by the Court of First Instance last April 13, 2008 on Pawa for supposedly killing the daughter of her employer.

She, however, maintained her innocence.

"Maganda records ng kapatid ko. Inosente talaga kapatid ko," Mr. Pawa stressed.

Jakatia, he said, worked as a household service worker abroad to give her family a better future.

"Bilang kapatid, mabait na bata yan," said Mr. Pawa, who works as a wing inspector of the 530th Air Base Wing of the Philippine Air Force based in Zamboanga City.

Mr. Pawa fervently prayed that his sister's life be spared.

“Iparating ko lang sa mahal ko na kapatid na tibayan lang niya loob niya, na manalangin siya sa Panginoon. Sana hindi matuloy ang bitay niya bukas. Magdasal na lang siya. Yun lang din ang hiling ko sa panginoon n asana maisalba siya, inosente talaga ang kapatid ko,” he said.

RACE AGAINST TIME

Prior to the scheduled execution, OFW advocate Susan “Toots” Ople of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center had urged the Duterte government to send a high-level emissary to Kuwait as soon as possible.

“Ang panawagan naming, una, sana magpadala ng high level na emissary ang ating pangulo at sana yung DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) ipatawag yung Kuwaiti ambassador para lang i-emphasize yung request ng ating bansa na i-defer...wag bitayin,” Ople said on DZMM.

Ople said they tried to verify with their own sources the news and the feedback came back positive.

“Ang pagkaalam ko, may sulat si Pangulong Duterte. Syempre, iba yung may pupunta doon na emisaryo na ipinadala mismo ng ating pangulo. Of course, all of these is a race against time,” she said.

She also added that Pawa’s case has spanned three administrations, from the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to President Benigno Aquino III, and now under Duterte.

Ople said the family also requested to go to Kuwait as soon as possible. With DZMM